


a colossal mistake

by lesbianmxgicians (kaianieves)



Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: Alcohol, Angst, F/F, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Cheating
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-13
Updated: 2019-06-16
Packaged: 2019-11-12 14:27:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18012623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaianieves/pseuds/lesbianmxgicians
Summary: “So, do you want to talk about it or-”“So I can go on and on about how shitty your best friend is? I know you don’t really care Julia.” The bartender set down another daiquiri. Alice grabbed it by the glass stem, downing it quickly.“Hey, that’s not true,” Julia said.Alice laughed. “Come on- you barely know me. I’m the best friend’s girlfriend, and you’re the boyfriend’s best friend… we’re not supposed to be friends.”Julia took her drink from the bartender, smiling up at him briefly before turning her full attention to Alice. “I don’t think that’s true,” she said. “From what Quentin’s told me, we seem to have a lot in common.” Alice wanted to roll her eyes at the mention of him again. She would have sent Julia away then and there had she not said this. “But I want to hear it from you.”





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to @a-m-b-i-t-i-o-u-s on Tumblr for beta-ing this for me!

Alice sat at the end of Eliot’s bed, tears in her eyes and hands in her lap. Quentin, Eliot and Margo all slept peacefully as the sun slowly rose and shone through the window. It was kind of the perfect metaphor.

Quentin stirred awake behind her. She felt him sit up, turning to glare at him. Then Alice got up, leaving the room. He followed after, terrified and babbling, trying to explain. She stopped, fuming and turned to face him. Her hand flew across his face. “You whore!” she spat. With that, she stormed out of the cottage.

Alice was seething. All she could focus on was the hurt and pain swirling around in her mind. She was overwhelmed with the need to hurt Quentin Coldwater the way he’d hurt her. Somewhere deep down, a part of Alice told her she truly didn’t want to. That she was just in pain, lashing out as a reaction. She definitely shouldn’t have been making any rash decisions.

Instead, she went to a bar. A place in Brooklyn Alice had never been before called O’Reillys. That’s where our story begins. With a daiquiri and a chance meeting in that bar on that night, out of the tens of hundreds of bars on that street block alone.

A woman sat down next to Alice. She wasn’t paying too much attention to her surroundings, just the drink in front of her. This woman was different though. She looked familiar.

Julia Wicker glanced to the side, seeing Alice Quinn. They vaguely knew each other, through Quentin of course. Because everything had to be about Quentin. “Alice?” Julia asked. “Aren’t you supposed to be at… Brakebills?”

“If I go there, I might just cut Quentin’s penis off,” Alice mumbled. She took another sip of her drink. Julia’s face turned from confused to surprised, maybe even a little bit disturbed. Alice barely noticed, and definitely didn’t care.

“Alright then,” Julia said, “And why exactly do you want to cut his dick off?”

“‘Cause then he won’t have it to stick inside other people,” Alice said. She faced Julia now. “He cheated on me.” Julia’s lips tightened into a small ‘o’ for a moment, then a frown. “Yeah. Exactly.”

Julia quickly assessed the situation- assessed Alice, really. She was already half drunk, had just been cheated on and didn’t look like she’d be going anywhere for the rest of the night. Julia sat down fully on the ratty leather stool next to her, raising her hand in the direction of the bartender. He walked over, throwing a towel over his shoulder.

“An old-fashioned, please. And another of whatever she’s having,” she said, nodding towards Alice’s drink. The bartender nodded. “So, do you want to talk about it or-”

“So I can go on and on about how shitty your best friend is? I know you don’t really care Julia.” The bartender set down another daiquiri. Alice grabbed it by the glass stem, downing it quickly.

“Hey, that’s not true,” Julia said.

Alice laughed. “Come on- you barely know me. I’m the best friend’s girlfriend, and you’re the boyfriend’s best friend… we’re not supposed to be friends.”

Julia took her drink from the bartender, smiling up at him briefly before turning her full attention to Alice. “I don’t think that’s true,” she said. “From what Quentin’s told me, we seem to have a lot in common.” Alice wanted to roll her eyes at the mention of  _ him  _ again. She would have sent Julia away then and there had she not said this. “But I want to hear it from you.”

The interlude isn’t really important. Talking about magic, probably more openly than they should have. Fucked up family shit- commonplace in any talented magician’s life, it seemed. Alice eventually switched from daiquiris to straight vodka, until the bartender cut them both off.

They stumbled out of the bar, giggly and out of their wits. Julia held onto Alice’s shoulders. Hailing a cab, Julia waited and watched her breath freeze in front of her face. When the car pulled up to the curb, she smiled.

“Thanks for that,” Alice said. Her eyes were glossy, the bar sign light shining down on her.

“That’s what booze is for,” Julia said. She hiccuped, causing Alice to giggle. Julia ignored the thoughts that sprang up as she watched Alice laugh, mostly because she thought it was only the alcohol. Plus, she tried to remind herself, sleeping with Alice would be a bad decision on so many levels.

Alice must have been thinking it too. Scratch that- she was definitely thinking it too, but for different reasons from Julia. Through the fog of intoxication, the one clear thought she had was of her hurt. The hurt that Quentin had caused. Now it was less about revenge, more of numbing that pain. Julia just happened to be there.

“Come home with me,” she said. Julia was in momentary shock. Either Alice was a mind reader, or she was genuinely interested too. Part of Julia’s mind was full of concern for Quentin. Another part was telling her that he was a cheater, that him and Alice were done. That this was only fair.

“My place makes more sense,” Julia said, surprising herself.

Almost everything after that was a blur. Stumbling through Julia’s apartment door, both of them falling onto the bed. Struggling to take Alice’s dress off. Hips and thighs and lips. Then nothing.

When Julia woke up, it was cold. She rolled over, pulling the blankets further onto her side. Except, that didn’t make sense. Her eyes shot open, sitting up quickly to glance at the other side of the bed. It was empty.

Julia got out of bed, pulling on her underwear and a tank top as she left her bedroom. “Alice?” she called. The apartment answered with silence. She was gone, because of course she was. What else was there but a drunken one night stand? A rebound.

Julia let out a shaky breath as a sinking feeling settled in her stomach. Why was she expecting anything more than what she got? She didn’t know. Now all she was left with was disappointment.

Her phone let out a noise beside her bed. She walked over, picking it up. It was a text from Quentin.

_ I need to talk to you, call me when you can. _

Julia’s sinking feeling very quickly turned to dread.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks to @thepoisonroom and @emberfaye for the help on this!

“Hey, Q. What’s up?” Julia said as soon as the line picked up. She tried to keep her voice level, tried to not show the panic that was rising inside her as she held the phone. He knew, she thought. He knew what had happened with Alice, and now he was about to confront her about it.

What would she say? That it didn’t mean anything? Because ultimately, it probably didn’t. Probably. Instead, he said, “I fucked up. Bad. Have you seen Alice?”

“Uh, yeah- I saw her last night, at a bar near my place. Why? What did you do?” Julia was feigning ignorance. It would make this lie that she was slowly but certainly wrapping around herself seem more believable, almost airtight. Another part of her wanted to hear Quentin say it. A deeper part of her wanted to yell at him for doing that to anyone, let alone Alice. Or maybe specifically because it was Alice.

“That’s not- it’s complicated, alright? I just need to find her.”

“Do you want some help?” Julia asked. Please say yes, please say yes, please say yes.

“I’ve got it covered, Jules. Thanks,” he said. Then Quentin hung up, and Julia stared at the phone for a long moment. She could stay here, carry on with her day. She should probably meet up with the Free Traders, or at least send a chat. It wasn’t her mess to clean up anyway- it was Q’s.

She stared at the phone a moment longer before leaving it on the kitchen counter, walking quickly to her room and putting on some clothes. Julia didn’t spare any time, throwing on a pair of shoes and grabbing her phone again, and her keys. Slamming her front door behind her, she barely remembered to lock it.

It was only when she was standing in the midst of Brakebills’ ward-induced forest did she realize she didn’t have a plan, and more importantly, a way to get in. She barely knew Alice, didn’t have any clue as to where she might disappear to. She might not even be missing, just avoiding Quentin on campus. What was Julia’s reason for rushing out here again?

Just as her determination wavered, the wards cleared, revealing the main Brakebills building and its long, flourishing green lawn. Julia stepped forward hesitantly, walking onto a sandy-coloured pathway. There wasn’t an explanation as to what had just happened, and she didn’t really need one. She made her way across the lawn in search of the Physical Kids’ Cottage.

Meanwhile, Quentin stood outside of Dean Fogg’s office. There was a rumble of his voice from behind the door, which Quentin took as an invitation inside.

Dean Fogg sighed when he saw who it was. “Quentin. What can I do for you?” he asked.

“It’s, um, it’s about Alice,” he said. “She’s missing.”

Dean Fogg’s face didn’t change, hiding his interest or disinterest in the situation. “Why do you say that?”

“I haven’t been able to find her. She’s not at the Cottage, I-I checked the campus and she isn’t here-”

“Why do you think Alice would have left in the first place,” Fogg specified. That made Quentin stop talking. He didn’t exactly want to tell his professor about his infidelity and relationship problems. The Dean’s next words had an air of mild amusement. “Well, you should know this, but students here  _ do  _ have the autonomy to leave campus. Have you considered she may have left?”

Quentin hadn’t considered that at all, but now it was all he was thinking about. Alice could be literally anywhere, and if she didn’t want to see him- which he figured she didn’t, he wouldn’t if he were her- that would make things especially difficult. Quentin exited the Dean’s office as quickly as he entered.

“You’re welcome,” Dean Fogg mumbled after him.

The walk back to the Cottage was a sulky one, with Quentin trying to wrap his head around what had happened. He had slept with Eliot and Margo, that was for sure. Alice had found them, he had tried to talk to her, and she promptly had called him a whore, if he recalled correctly. He could concede that that was fair.

When he opened the door to the Cottage, there talking to Eliot was Julia. He'd called her about Alice, and she had given him a lead: she had seen Alice at a bar in Brooklyn. Quentin hadn't expected her to show up at Brakebills, somehow.

“Jules,” Quentin blurted. “What are you doing here?”

“I'm here to help with the search,” she said. It looked like her brain and her body were fighting over whether to act confident or mousy; Julia's words were assured but her stance said otherwise.

“Alright,” Quentin said. Why would she care, though? She barely knew Alice.

“Alright, indeed. Let's try to find your Ginny Weasley,” Eliot said to him.

“What do you mean, ‘find'? Find who?” Penny asked. He appeared out of nowhere, behind Julia. The edges of his being frayed in view as he settled into the atmosphere.

“Alice,” Julia said. “Don't you know?”

“No, I don't know because these fuckers never tell me anything. And what do you mean, Alice is gone? We're leaving today.”

“Look we can't go until we find her. I don't think you want to brave the Neitherlands yourself, so…” Quentin said.

Penny thought about it, actually debating his chances against Eve and her goons. Then he sighed, rolling his eyes as always. “Fine.”

“Have you all come to an agreement, then?” Margo asked, walking down the stairs. “‘Cause I think I might know where she is.”

Margo had cast a tracking spell; easy but more than a little creepy and kind of gross. She'd taken a strand of hair from Alice's hair brush, placed it over a convenience store map of New York, blown on it and set it on fire at the edges. The place where the hair ultimately ended up and where the map didn't burn to ash was where our findee was: in this case, Alice, and she was in Brooklyn.

“Couldn't we have just tracked her phone?” Penny asked.

“Well, no, because none of us have any clue how to do that. Plus, this way's more fun,” Margo replied.

Google Maps told them she was specifically in East New York, a crime-sullen couple of blocks where no one like Alice would have business. But she was there nonetheless, so there they went.

Quentin got makeshift Scooby gang vibes from the whole situation. All they needed now was a talking dog. They split into two groups as they walked through the neighbourhood: Eliot and Margo, and Quentin, Penny and Julia. Quentin really didn't want to get stuck with the other two, for once, having to rehash the night before every moment he breathed alongside them. He'd happily take Penny’s unreserved aggression and Julia's sudden awkwardness instead.

They walked down the sidewalk, looking at the buildings and approaching closer than the sidewalk to see if they could sense any magic, while also trying to look like they weren't casing the place as much as possible. Penny had wandered off to a piss-smelling brick building, leaving just Julia and Quentin. She was still radiating a jittery in between-ness that was starting to get to him.

“Jules, is there something wrong?” he said, stopping to look at her.

She opened her mouth, her eyes lazily wide. She was about to say one thing, but switched tracks at the last second to say another. “Yeah, Q. Actually, there is something we need to-”

“Hey! Nerds!” Penny called from a few yards behind them, standing in front of the same brick building. “I think this is it.” Forgetting his conversation with Julia, Quentin quickly walked over to him and the building. Julia followed shortly after.

The wards around the building were fairly standard stuff, nothing too heavy or complicated. Stuff to keep people off the grid; Quentin mentally guessed hedges. Julia audibly confirmed it. “This must be a safehouse.”

“You sound surprised,” Penny said.

“Marina never mentioned it to me,” she said.

Quentin walked forward, approaching the crumbling concrete steps up to the doors. “Well, let's go then,” he said. Penny glanced at Julia as Quentin walked up the steps, shaking his head before following.


	3. Chapter 3

Yvette Montgomery stared blankly at the flat screen television in front of her. An episode of _I Love Lucy_ played in black and white on her screen. She’d bought the full DVD set at the used CD and vinyl store a few blocks away on impulse, along with the _Greatest Hits of Donna Summer_ on vinyl.

The episodes proved to be funny, worthy of the mild haughtiness to which people esteemed them. It was about four in the morning, Yvette’s eyes practically lolling into the back of her head. That’s when it happened.

“Yvette, dear, don’t fall asleep now! You’ll miss the big show, and no one wants that, do they?” Lucy said. Yvette’s eyes shot open. There, on her screen, was a close up of Lucille Ball’s face, grey and beautiful. She stared at the camera- at _Yvette_ for a moment longer before the bit continued on.

Yvette tiredly squinted, the sudden feeling of being watched creeping in. Because she was! Lucy had just addressed her personally, from a shitty technicolor television that wasn’t meant to display this type of media. She got off the couch, walking forward.

“Well gee!” Lucy said. “Isn’t it awfully cold in here?” She dramatically wrapped a thick blanket around her shoulders. Laughter erupted from the off screen audience. It sounded like Yvette was in the middle of them. “I could just shiver and shiver, and no one would come save me from this cold,” she continued. Then she sat down at the foot of her bed. “Useless, they all are. Absolutely useless.” More laughter. It got louder.

Yvette’s mind immediately ran to the explanation that she was high- she had to be. Even though there was no possible way (none of her friends had any good connections) that had to be it. Or maybe it was exhaustion after exams? All that stressing about Mr. Mann’s English exam did wipe her out pretty hard.

She stepped forward another few steps. The dark brown hardwood underneath her feet was cold. Chilled, at least twenty degrees colder than it was an inch away from where she was standing.

“Are you coming to keep me warm?” Lucy asked from the television. The camera zoomed in, getting that terrifyingly close shot of her pore-less, color washed face again. “It’s about time.”

Yvette walked forward again, head ducked to examine the TV. This couldn’t be real- or could it? Stranger things had happened, she supposed. Although this one thing might top the rest of them.

Yvette reached forward, her hand sinking into the screen.

* * *

 

When Quentin grabbed the door handle to the brick building in East New York, he let it go just as quickly. It burned him, a white hot magical fire definitely meant to keep out undesirables. Penny and Julia now stood behind him, both looking at him curiously.

“It’s magicked to keep us out,” he said. Penny looked up at the building, the two other floors standing tall overhead. Then he took a deep breath, closing his eyes. His being frayed again, briefly, before disappearing entirely. Quentin and Julia waited a moment before the door opened.

“The place looks empty,” Penny said.

“Then why is it giving off so much energy?” Julia asked.

“You’ve never abandoned wards before?”

Quentin ignored their chatter, looking around the first room. It looked like a shitty office building, a vase of fake flowers to his left covered in at least an inch of dust. The desk under it was covered in a white sheet. As the three walked further into the building, they saw that all the furniture- desks, rolling chairs, even the damn water cooler- was covered in white sheets. This place was completely, thoroughly abandoned.

“Is this like some sort of red herring?” Quentin asked aloud. It was less a question for his company, more for the universe. Why had they been led to this empty fucking building if it meant nothing?

“Look, I probably just got it wrong,” Penny said. Oh! The arrogant prick has a break through, Quentin thought. Then he heard a rumbling.

“Wait, no. Stop.” Julia had heard it too, looking to Quentin in a Wonder Twins sort of way. Her awkwardness was gone for the moment. There was something in here.

Julia found the source of the noise to be the sheet-covered water cooler, seemingly gone haywire with motion in their presence. “It’s magic,” she said.

“Meaning what? How is a magical water cooler going to help us find Alice?” Penny asked.

“Can you just stop… being a neurotic asshole for like, two seconds?” Quentin asked, taking a brief pause. He approached the water cooler, glancing inside it’s blue tinted plastic. Inside, a thin strip of paper floated in the probably stale water. It looked like it had writing on it. “There’s something in there,” he said. “Looks like a note.”

“Great, a message in a bottle,” Julia said. She turned to Penny. “Do you think you could travel it out of there?”

“Not unless I want to suffocate instantly while all of my limbs contort into painful positions.”

“Fine,” Quentin said. “Then we’re going to have to drink it out.”

“I am _not_ drinking that old ass water,” Penny said.

“We don’t really have a choice,” Quentin said. “Do you want to get to Fillory or not?”

Julia wrenched Dixie cups out of their plastic dispenser, handing one to Penny and Quentin. They each took turns pouring themselves cups, water to the brim, downing it quickly with little complaint from Penny. Eventually the note came out with the last of the water, in Julia’s cup. She fished it out, tossing the rest of the water along with the cup on the floor. It spilled, soaking slowly into the carpet floor.

On it, it said:

 

DRINK ME.  


 

“This doesn’t make sense,” Julia said, looking up at Quentin. Quickly, her vision started to warp and bubble. Penny dropped to the ground first, like a shirtless rag doll. Quentin’s eyes widened as he realized what was happening, but he then too fell. Julia was the last to go, holding onto the paper and the water cooler in a death grip. It toppled over as she went down.

Where they woke up was not expected. Although, it must have been hard to have expectations when you’re magically drugged and kidnapped. Julia woke up first, blood rushing to her head. She was hanging upside down, hands tied behind her back. A woman sat in front of her, and Penny and Quentin when she looked to the left of her and saw them hanging and restrained as well.

The woman in question had to be a magician; if anyone could dress like it, but make it cool, it was definitely a stand off between her and Marina. She wore a black tank top that showed off the muscle of her olive toned arms, and what looked like a mini skirt made out of PVC. The light it reflected hurt Julia’s eyes. Her black hair was pulled into a high ponytail, dark red eyeshadow covering her eyelids.

This was all code for edgy. Or at least tough, and fairly serious at magic. She sat there, legs crossed, waiting patiently for them to wake up. Julia figured she hadn’t noticed her yet. She could use this to her advantage.

“What the fuck?” someone groaned. It was Quentin. Julia whipped her head in his direction, seeing his face, very concious and turning red very quickly. Well, plan spoiled.

“Quentin,” Julia said, getting his attention.

“Jules. Where are we?”

The woman stood from her chair. “Julia Wicker, Quentin Coldwater…” she trailed off, walking over to Penny’s suspended figure. Her hand reached down as she slapped him across the face. Q would have found that more than a little satisfying. “And William Adiyodi. Why, isn’t it a pleasure.” Her mouth formed a sly shark’s grin.

“What the fuck, lady?” Penny said. “Where the hell are we?”

“A better question would be why the _fuck_ were you in my safehouse?” she asked.

“Your safehouse? It was an empty office building,” Quentin said.

“Do you actually suck shit at being magicians? Or are you just playing stupid?” No one answered. “It’s my safehouse… under construction. The point is, if you sense a building with big magical energies, chances are you should stay away unless welcomed. Which you were _not,”_ she said.

“Well what about now?” Julia asked. She was ready to strike a deal. “We need your help.” The woman chuckled. “To find someone.”

“Look kid, this isn’t a help center. Why don’t you go back to Brakebills.” Quentin looked surprised. “Don’t be shocked. I can smell the classical babying from here.”

“What if I could show you something that you didn’t know,” Julia said quickly. The woman, who was turning around, turned her head to look at Julia.

She crouched in front of her, skirt bunching up at her thighs. “And what could it possibly be that I don’t know?”

“Well I don’t know, but I _do_ know Marina has never mentioned you before. That either means she doesn’t know you exist, or she doesn’t care enough to acknowledge you.” The woman swallowed. She was definitely a hedge. “I can change that.”

The woman stood up again, calling down a long, darkened hallway in what sounded like Japanese. Another woman walked quickly towards them, her cherry red stilletos coming into view when she stood next to the other woman, who was clearly her boss. In her hands the second woman held bolt cutters. She circled Julia, cutting the rope that tied her hands together. Then she reached up, cutting the chains that held her upside down from a low hanging metal beam. Julia fell to the ground, arms barely braced for impact.

“Come on,” the first woman said. The woman in high heels had disappeared. Julia stood, brushing off her knees. She glanced back at Penny and Quentin. “They can stay here. If you prove to have anything useful, I’ll let them go.” Julia squared her shoulders, following her. It was time to impress.


	4. Chapter 4

Alice laid in the grass. The sun was shining. It didn’t feel like regular sun. It provided little warmth, if anything making the skin on her legs feel cold and prickly, like there was ice surrounding her nerves. She raised her hand in front of her face. Goosebumps rose on the back of her arm. Crossing her pointer and ring finger over her middle finger, Alice snapped. It was a mildly difficult feat; you needed lots of traction in your fingers, which the position didn’t really provide. Bubbles quickly floated from her fingers. They were swept aside by the breeze, popping moments later.

It was a magic trick she had learned when she was a kid, reading one of her father’s books on juvenile and party trick magic. Her mother always found it frustrating when she did it in the house. She said it would damage the ceiling, somehow.

Alice took a deep breath, savouring everything. The biting sun, the bubbles still streaming casually from her fingertips. She held the breath for a moment before letting it out of her lungs, closing her eyes. She set her arm back down in the grass by her side. This was where she wanted to be. Forever.

* * *

 

The woman who’d kidnapped her led Julia down the dark hallway away from Quentin and Penny. Her heels echoed loudly, reverberating off the walls and tickling Julia’s eardrums. There was a light at the end of it, bright and white. When they reached it, she discovered it was a doorway. It led to a room- it looked like a cafe. The walls were a muted brown colour, a stark difference to the blue-black hallway behind her. There were Japanese words on the window facing outside, in a curly pink font. Older folk sat at tables, speaking quietly and sipping from mugs, some playing what looked like chess.

“I’m confused,” said Julia.

“Not what you were expecting?” No. No it wasn’t. She had been expecting some scary looking people to be waiting in another dark room, where they’d discuss the price of help. The woman walked to an empty table in the back corner of the room. A game was set up in the middle. She pulled out a chair, sitting down. Julia did the same. “My name is Uma Kawamoto. You already know I’m a hedge. I know you’re one, too.” Uma didn’t eye the x-shaped scars over Julia’s star tattoos peaking out of her sleeve. She didn’t need to. This wasn’t a glean for information, to scare Julia- Uma was well researched. That must have been how she knew their names.

“I need you help to find someone,” Julia said. She hoped she didn’t sound desperate. “A woman, white and blonde. Her name is Alice Quinn.” Her boyfriend’s one of the assholes hanging upside down in the back, she said in her head.

The name made Uma blink, breaking her unmoving stare. “I may have had someone come to me of a… similar description,” Uma said.

“Well, do you know where she went? Did you help her?” She definitely sounded desperate now. She scooched forward in her chair.

Uma laughed, shaking her head. “Payment first. I believe you owe me an unknown spell.”

“I don’t know what you  _ do  _ know,” Julia said.

Uma’s jaw ticked. “Here’s a ballpark for you,” she said. She turned her head to the side, pulling her ponytail away from her neck. A large, black star with a flesh-toned ‘200’ in the middle was tatooed just below her ear. Uma let her hair fall back in place, looking straight ahead at Julia again.

Julia’s mouth wasn’t hanging open catching flies, but she was impressed. Level two hundred. But she wasn’t exactly up on hedge witch curriculum, so she had no idea what Uma might or might not know. She decided on something moderately impressive.

Julia pressed her index and middle fingers together, creating a diamond shape by connecting her thumbs below. She closed her eyes, focusing energy in the empty space between her hands. There was something in her chest- it felt like a ball of solid concrete. It threw her off, messing up the flow of the energy. When she pushed her hands forward, fingers breaking apart, the spell worked. Not in the way she intended.

She had only meant to create a thin carving on the game board- Shogi?- in front of her. Instead, a rhombus shape tunneled through the wooden board, the table and what looked like a few feet deep into the floor. The hole was at a diagonal angle all the way down. Uma’s feet were centimeters away from the hole in the floor.

Uma sucked in her bottom lip, chewing on it. Her chest jerked forward, and it took a moment for Julia to hear the laughter coming from her throat. Her chuckles for some reason appeared in the air like animated text, bubbly and bright orange. They hung in the air a second, then disappeared just as quickly.

“And what the fuck was that exactly?” she asked. Julia didn’t have an answer. “I’ll tell you, in case you were wondering.  _ Rhombe Coutellerie.  _ A French spell created in the eighteenth century to cut tinted glass for Catholic churches, created by one Marie Laverne, French hedge witch. Also a racist bitch, but that’s beside the point. I don’t know what Marina’s been feeding you, but that spell taps out at level eighty-five,  _ max _ .” That sinking feeling from before, from when when Julia had discovered Alice gone, was returning now. It was weighed down by the concrete ball in her chest. Along for the ride was a building anger. 

“For ‘Top Bitch New York’,” Uma continued- saying the title in what Julia guessed was her Marina impression. It sounded more like a high school cheerleader- “She seems to be a pretty shit teacher.” Then, she raised her hand and quickly snapped her fingers. The cafe quieted down, the chatter dying. Looking around, the elderly patrons seemed to have slowed down, like Uma had turned down their playback speed. She was pacing entropy.

“Looks like you’ve got nothing for me, champ,” she said, popping the ‘p’. “For the effort, though, I’ll drop you off where you arrived from.” Julia opened her mouth to ask about Q and Penny, but suddenly Uma was gone. So was the broken table, and the cafe entirely. She was no longer sitting but standing on a sidewalk- the sidewalk in front of the abandoned office building.

She rushed up the steps, reaching for the door handle. As soon as she touched it, Julia was sent back flying. She landed harshly on the pavement, cradling her hand. A scorch mark ran along her palm. Footsteps sounded around the corner. Julia saw that it was Eliot and Margo. Both of their faces were awash with concern she’d never seen before.

“Where have you fuckers been?” asked Margo. She walked a few paces ahead of Eliot once she saw Julia on the ground. “You’ve been gone for hours.” Julia now noticed the darkening sky, filled with liquid stars that seemed to blend together. She was surprised she could see them from this side of the city.

“Where’s Quentin?” Eliot asked. “And Penny.”

They were still with Uma, god knew where, hanging upside down with their brains probably about to explode from all of the blood rushing to their heads. The only clue they had to find them would gradually slam them back closer (and eventually into) the rusted Oldsmobile parked on the near side of the street. Julia sighed heavily, lying down on the sidewalk.


	5. Chapter 5

How long had she been waiting? Yvette couldn’t tell. She’d been told to wait, that it was her job. So wait she had. This place was grey. The air was grey. As grey as Lucy’s face right before she’d walked through a television screen. They hadn’t explained that to her. They’d told her she was something called a magician- not the type who pulled a rabbit out of a hat- and welcomed her to an Order of Librarians. No explanation as to the technical stuff, though. Oh well.

They’d given her a wooden box, and sent her through a mirror. They hadn’t explained those things either, other than that a woman would need the box, and that said woman would find her. Clearly everything about this was on a need-to-know basis. Yvette was just the delivery girl.

She did hope that the woman, whoever and wherever she was, would find her soon. It was getting hard to breathe. She had to give her the box.

* * *

Julia didn’t have a plan. That seemed to be happened often lately. She didn’t have any idea how to save the day, to get Penny and Quentin back. They could be dead right now. Uma could have killed them, and it would be her fault. She never should have left them. She shouldn’t have been so stupid. She should have left Alice alone at the bar, walked away. She should have let Quentin find her on his own. She should have stayed outside the building. She should’ve-

“I know that million mile stare anywhere,” Eliot said. He was standing at the table in a paisley robe, stainless steel bar shaker in hand. There was a martini glass in front of him. He took off the bar shaker lid, pouring his drink. He plucked the glass from the table, walking over to her. “Drink?” he offered. Julia shook her head. He sat down next to her, took a sip. Eliot made a face, setting the glass down. There was a momentary stillness, like he was making a decision. It seemed to change the atmosphere. “So, what’s eating at your soul and sense of morality?”

Julia opened her mouth to say something, how that was a kind of highly inappropriate question to casually ask. Then she closed it. She quickly realized she’d been waiting for someone to ask _._ She’d already tried telling, unprompted, and that’d been a floundering mess. And maybe it was easier to tell someone you didn’t know too well at all.

“I made a mistake,” she said. Eliot’s eyebrows furrowed. “I slept with Alice.” His brows shot up, mouth open. His lips curled in an expression of acknowledgement. He picked his drink up again, finishing it.

“Well, that is quite a… A something,” Eliot said. It felt like Julia had just willingly dropped herself into an endless dark pit of the universe. “Have you told Quentin?”

“I’ve tried… I can’t. It’d break him.”

Eliot didn’t seem mad, which was surprising. Quentin was his friend, and Julia had betrayed him. She had been expecting a completely different reaction.“If you do tell him, you’re being honest. The world can’t necessarily fault you for honesty. If you _don’t_ tell him, well, I’m fairly sure you already know how lying to him feels by now.”

He looked at Julia now, direct eye contact. There was something soft in his face. The curtain was down. “Do you love her?” he asked.

“No… I don’t know. We’ve talked once, we’ve met once. I know that I care about her. I want to find her, not just for Quentin. I haven’t loved a lot of things in a while, and the one person that I do I’m lying to,” Julia said. “Everything was lined up and almost perfect.”

“Nothing’s ever perfect with magic.”

“No,” Julia said absently. Eliot looked at her inquisitively. “You’re right. It isn’t.” She got up from the couch. “I have something I need to do. Don’t wait up.”

Brooklyn had gotten colder, it seemed. The streets smelled frozen, a welcome change from sewage rot. She hadn’t been on this specific street block in what felt like a lifetime. Julia was a different person then; a newcomer to magic, still trying to sew her two worlds together. Trying to perform the impossible. Marina’s safe house didn’t tower dauntingly like it had when she’d first seen it. It was a building, made of steel and stone. Julia wasn’t a newcomer, either. There was nothing to be afraid of.

She figured blowing out their backdoor with a spell probably wasn’t going to get her much chat time, but would certainly increase her chances of magical injury. Instead she did the knock, the last knock she remembered. They changed it every so often, to keep people exactly like her out and away. Hopefully her luck, in this one instance, was up.

Julia knocked three times, then a fourth time at the bottom of the door near the ground. She waited a moment, holding her breath. An eye slot moved open. She recognized them. The eyes rolled, and the eye slot closed. The door opened with a thunk.

Pete stepped out into the cold, grabbing Julia by the elbow and ushering her away from others’ view. “What the hell are you doing here?” he asked.

“I’m here to speak to your boss,” Julia said, wrenching her elbow away from him. “I’ve got information.” Pete gave her a look. _“Valuable_ information,” she continued.

“You know that’s not going to happen, sweetheart.” God, she wanted kick his ass.

“Fine. Guess I’ll let the competition take her out then.” She dropped the bait line, then started walking away. As her footsteps echoed, the thought was cementing that this might have not been enough. Pete would let her walk away, uncaring, and this would have all been for nothing.

“Wait, hold on!” Pete called after her. A small, satisfied smile grew on Julia’s face. She turned, stopping. Pete took in a deep breath before sighing and waving her over. Turned out, her luck was up.


End file.
